Author discussion - how can we keep ourselves from spamming other Goodreads members?

[Jemima]

We don't have many discussions raging for the author-members on the group, but there sure are a lot of Goodreads groups with discussions about spammy author members.

When I turned up here in 2012 I was so enthusiastic at the possibility of telling everyone about my wonderful new book, and I soon learned that is NOT the name of the game. It's frustrating, and at times deeply depressing, to be struggling all on your own against the wave of books out there, let alone the waves of rejections from agents and publishers, if you went that way.

So, how do we keep ourselves from spamming group members. And what can we do to help promote our books - what works, in other words.

And before you add your thoughts, PLEASE make sure you've read the Author Guidelines, so we all understand what is considered spammy behaviour on Goodreads :)

[J.S.]

This is an excellent question and one with which I've struggled. Like Jemima, I was excited to share information about our books only to find the line between self-promotion and discussion difficult to clearly understand. I'm afraid I've stepped over the line a time or two although I tried to carefully word my posts to include the fact that I'm an author with a great book to share without simply promoting myself.

From the reaction of others in this group and my own discomfort when I see others self-promote, I've learned that anything resembling, "please buy/checkout my book" in the mix of a discussion is not okay unless that is the topic of the discussion or it is in areas designated for authors to promote (such as our author's corner).

This leads to the main question of what works that isn't spamming. I'm still searching but feel giveaways have been the main useful thing I've used to give exposure to our series. Not only do they bring attention to the books to any Goodreads member who is searching the giveaways, it gives a valid reason to mention our book in the giveaway section of this and other groups.

I'd love to hear what other authors are doing that works!

[Rebecca]

I agree about how little it takes to be off-putting. I mostly stick to just engaging with people on whatever topics are being discussed, and hope some might look and see I write. Or it might be mentioned--discussions of age-appropriate content, for example, have been a place where we can all say, quite legitimately, "in my books I..."

Otherwise, I post about giveaways and launches in the appropriate places. I'm in some groups that have general chat threads where we all share exciting stuff in our lives ("I cleaned the litter box!") and I've found it okay to say "My new book is coming out this week!" But I wouldn't add links (*maybe* the GR link) or suggest buying it--it's about my excitement, not my sales.

Everything I've read suggest the most effective means of marketing through social media is simply to be an active community member.

[Bella]

I'm an aspiring author. Nothing published, so nothing to promote. As such, I use Goodreads to socialize with other people who love reading and to find more books to read.

GR's groups run from those who are hostile and suspicious to those that are welcoming- often running formalized Read for Review type things. I think that authors don't spend enough time familiarizing themselves with GR's to be able to recognize which is which and act accordingly.

I know this may not be what authors want to hear, but maybe other than giveaways, advertising, there isn't really a good way to promote yourself as an author. (Unless you are very savvy, I think you'll alienate more people than you'll interest.) Maybe the answer is that you have to come to GR's as a reader and anything beyond that is just a piece of good luck.

Most authors don't come off as readers and I think that turns people off. I think that promoting something as free or cheap- which I think is an almost dead strategy- is not meaningful to most readers. After all, I have access to over a million free books. More than I can read in my lifetime. (The library.) Many readers have books on their TBR lists that would be 10-20 years worth of books. Many readers own more books than they could read in a year or two. I know that out of the hundreds of free books I've downloaded from B&N over the years, I've read maybe 3. One was Outlander and the others were B&N Classics editions.

[Melissa]

I don't have any books published either, so I don't have anything to promote, either.
With that said, groups have probably been one of the great ways I've discovered new books on Goodreads. I'll participate in discussions in groups, and one group has a lot of monthly reads with author participation, and I discovered a lot of books that way. If an mentioned their book or line of work in a non-spammy way, it was really fun.

[Bella]

Melissa, is that a group that welcomes participation by indie authors and reads a lot of indie books? If so, I bet there are authors here who would like to know the name of the group.

[Jemima]

I'm a member of the Space Opera group which asks for Indie picks as well as 'dead-tree and possibly dead author' nominations plus a YA one each month. Not sure how people manage to read so many each month, but still!

Interestingly, instead of polling, they pick by random.org (I think)

I'm enjoying this discussion :)